Are people immune after recovering from Covid 19 disease?
This assumption does not seem to hold in some cases.
A virologist explains why reinfections with the coronavirus are also threatening.
Especially at the beginning of the pandemic, voices were loud that one would be immune to the virus after a corona infection.
This view is now viewed critically in science.
With regard to virus mutations, there is only one option left: vaccination
Munich - Are you immune to the virus after surviving the corona infection?
Science is currently very concerned with this question.
There are still few reliable studies on the risk of infection after illness.
But even if only a few cases of so-called secondary infections are known to date, there seems to be a risk of re-infection.
Corona: herd immunity?
The riddle of the second wave in Manaus
This is now becoming frighteningly clear in the example of Manaus.
In the capital of the Brazilian state of Amazonas,
corona antibodies were found in around three quarters of the population (76 percent)
, according to a
study published
in the journal
Science
.
However, the associated hope of herd immunity has by no means materialized.
Manaus is hit almost as violently by the second corona wave as by the first.
Explosive: the decisive threshold for herd immunity is usually set by science at 67 percent.
Manaus would actually have exceeded this limit.
Why was there still a second corona outbreak?
To date, there is no clear answer to this question.
The explanations go from doubting the herd immunity per se to a greater aggressiveness of the virus mutations, which are also rampant in Manaus, and to a general decrease in immunity.
So maybe people got infected a second time?
According to various scientists, possible.
+
People with masks wait in front of an oxygen dealer.
The capacity of the city of Manaus for oxygen production now covered less than a third of the actually necessary demand.
The second wave hit the state of Amazonas with full force.
The ailing health system was not prepared for the new outbreak.
© Lucas Silva / dpa
Corona studies: Probably not given complete immunity
A recent study from Great Britain examined the data of clinical staff who had been tested several times for Covid-19 and came to the conclusion that around 6,600 people who were positive for corona antibodies between June and November
had been tested, 44 subjects were infected again with corona during the period.
A very small percentage, but not a hundred percent immunity.
A previous study from London observed corona patients over a period of several months and found that the number of antibodies fell by around a quarter within four months *.
Other studies come to the conclusion that former corona patients are immune for around eight months.
Video: Several months of immunity from surviving corona infection?
Corona: "The more severe the symptoms, the stronger the immune response"
The decisive criterion for immunity generally seems to be the number of antibodies or the severity of the disease, as the virologist Friedemann Weber
explains
to
Focus Online
: “The more severe the symptoms, the more severe the immune response.
Or in other words: If someone has only mild cold symptoms, they may have antibodies, but the immunity is not high enough to protect against reinfection. ”This view is in line with a study in the journal
Nature
.
According to Weber, the decline in antibodies also played a role in the renewed corona outbreak in Manaus.
The newly emerged virus mutations, in combination with insufficient immunity, could have resulted in a large number of reinfections.
Because with the mutants "the antibodies from the first wave would no longer bind properly".
Scientists currently assume that the virus mutations are not necessarily more deadly, but more aggressive, i.e. more contagious.
Corona: immunity after infection?
"Only possible through a virtually complete vaccination"
Weber is therefore certain that a corona disease does not necessarily protect against a second infection.
“Immunity from infection creates a lot of suffering and doesn't work at all.
This does not protect the population.
That is not possible. "So there is only one way to go:" Only with a virtually complete vaccination can we achieve a stronger immune response. "
(As)
* The study results were published in a so-called preprint and have yet to be replicated. In science, replication is the repeated implementation of a study with a similar methodology, but usually by other scientists.
